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16 December 2011

Prominent Atheist Christopher Hitchens has Died

Christopher knew that faithful Christians believe that
it is appointed to man once to die, and after that the Judgment. He knew
that we believe what Jesus taught about the reality of damnation. He
also knew that we believe—for I told him—that in this life, the door of
repentance is always open. A wise Puritan once noted what we learn from
the last-minute conversion of the thief on the cross—one, that no one
might despair, but only one, that no one might presume. We have
no indication that Christopher ever called on the Lord before he died,
and if he did not, then Scriptures plainly teach that he is lost
forever. But we do have every indication that Christ died for sinners,
men and women just like Christopher. We know that the Lord has more than
once hired workers for his vineyard when the sun was almost down (Matt.
20:6).

We also know that Christopher was worried about this,
and was afraid of letting down the infidel team. In a number of
interviews during the course of his cancer treatments, he discussed the
prospect of a "death bed" conversion, and it was clear that he was
concerned about the prospect. But, he assured interviewers, if anything
like that ever happened, we should all be certain that the cancer or the
chemo or something had gotten to his brain. If he confessed
faith, then he, the Christopher Hitchens that we all knew, should be
counted as already dead. In short, he was preparing a narrative for us,
just in case. But it is interesting that the narrative he prepped us
with did not involve some ethically challenged evangelical nurses on the
late shift who were ready to claim that they had heard him cry out to
God, thus misrepresenting another great infidel into heaven. It has been
done with Einstein, and with Darwin. Why not Hitchens? But Christopher
actually prepared us by saying that if he said anything like this, then he did not know what he was saying.

This is interesting, not so much because of what it says
about what he did or did not do as death approached him, and as he at
the same time approached death. It is interesting because, when he gave
these interviews, he was manifestly in his right mind, and the
thought had clearly occurred to him that he might not feel in just a few
months the way he did at present. The subject came up repeatedly, and
was plainly a concern to him.
Christopher Hitchens was baptized in his infancy, and his name means
"Christ-bearer." This created an enormous burden that he tried to shake
off his entire life. No creature can ever succeed in doing this. But
sometimes, in the kindness of God, such failures can have a gracious
twist at the end. We therefore commend Christopher to the Judge of the
whole earth, who will certainly do right. Christopher Eric Hitchens
(1949-2011).

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